Monday, April 20, 2009

I finally made something for myself. It's crochet, which I'm very terrible at, but it was great practice. I did have to rip it out and start over 4 times, but it was well worth it. I do wish that my crochet would be tighter, it's a little too big and no matter how tight I pull on those stitches, it doesn't seem to ever tighten up. I was going to link to the pattern that i used, but it seems to have disappeared from Ravelry, though I could find similar ones. It's called a Flapper Hat and the pattern was free. If someone really wants this specific pattern, let me know and I'll research it more.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

My mom gave me the book, "Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Amigurumi," by Chronicle Books. Although I wish it had more detailed instructions on things like joining a nice ring (I'm still a beginner at crochet), it is a great book with easy to follow patterns. I made the oversized teddy bear, which is the size of a normal teddy bear and larger than any amigurumi I've ever seen. I made Ronan some woolies with clearanced organic wool (see previous post) and used the leftovers for the bear. I'm a loose crocheter and decided to felt it. After it felted, the stitches tightened up and it looks more, smooth I guess. I'll try to remember to post a pic later. Here it is prefelted-

My mother started them, then I finished them, so this is a joint project ;-) My mom bought some organic wool on clearance, but they only had one skein of pink and one of blue. She bought them both and they came out really cute! I had enough left over to make a teddy bear to match. We don't use patterns for these, but basically it's k2p2 rib over the entire pants, knitted in the round top down. When you get the rise long enough, put half the stitches (-5) on a stitch holder and the other half (-5) on circs using magic loop or on dpns (I used dpns). The five stitches in front and 5 stitches in back, can be kitchenered together for a nice crotch (I would usually make a wider seam here, but the wool was super bulky so 5 stitches was wide enough). I used the stretchy bind off for the very loose, circusy cuff. I double strand chained some pink to make a stretchy belt. Since these were knitted top down, I can take out the bottom of the legs and add more as he grows. They are stretchy enough, thanks to the all over ribbing, that he will be able to wear these until he's at least 4 yrs old (at that point, they may be shorties). They are very easy to make. Maybe my description sounds complicated, but I think that longies are the simplest garment to make and I started knitting these up when I was still a very beginner knitter.